A federal judge has halted enforcement of a Georgia law requiring employer-funded health benefit plans to pay employee claims in as little as 15 days.
U.S. District Judge William Duffey Jr. of the Northern District of Georgia issued a preliminary injunction Dec. 31 enjoining amendments to the state’s 14-year-old “prompt pay” statute. The changes, slated to take effect Jan. 1, also would fine insurance companies and other health benefits providers that delay processing claims, reimbursing physicians or insured patients for health benefit plans funded by employers.
